American Culture: Christianity, Brad Pitt, and Freedom of Speech

Kneel or Perish

Secularists steamroll over cultural landscape, threaten Christian dissent 

By Ed Vitagliano

(American Family Association Journal)

 

In a letter to the editor of the News-Leader newspaper in Springfield, Missouri, Jane Pitt wrote that she was a Christian and planned to vote for Mitt Romney in November. They were comments that initially attracted very little attention. 

Pitt cited Romney's pro-life views and said he shares her "conviction concerning homosexuality." The letter stated that President Barack Obama "is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same sex marriage." 

That's when the roof blew off the house. It was made public that Jane Pitt is the mother of popular actor Brad Pitt, and a storm struck with all the angry contempt that has come to identify the intolerant left.

There were the usual news media stories accusing Jane Pitt of being "anti-gay," but the worst sort of vitriol assaulted her via Twitter. Crude sexual epithets were used to describe Pitt, she was told to partake in sexual acts in the most vulgar of ways, and outright death threats were hurled at her. 

Jane Pitt has since refused to comment any further on the episode, becoming yet another voice silenced by those on the secular left who hate Christianity. Mission accomplished.  

Cultural totalitarianism

All in a day's work, as the old expression goes. But what happened to Jane Pitt is not the result of recent work but that of a decades-long assault against the Christian foundations of our nation. 

It is not simply an effort to carve out a niche for atheists and other secular rebels who exist within the otherwise religious landscape, according to Peter Hitchens, conservative author of The Rage Against God  and the brother of the late, outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens.  

Instead, he said, this secular offensive is "a dogmatic tyranny in the making."  

Peter Hitchens is British, and since the U.K. and the rest of Europe are down the secular road just ahead of the U.S., it is worth heeding the warnings of Christians who are already experiencing the beginning stages of this tyranny.

  

Elizabeth Kendal, an international religious liberty analyst and advocate in the U.K., said in a recent blog that Christians in the U.K. and the U.S. are on the verge of seeing the triumph of a cultural totalitarianism that will drive believers to the fringes of a once free society. Already, she said, Christians are being vilified, fired and "dragged through the courts" for resisting the new ideology. 

"These British and American Christians are not being dismissed, expelled, sued, fined, struck off and closed down because of anything they have done," Kendal insisted. "Rather, it is because of what they could not do: generally they could not affirm that all cultures, beliefs or lifestyle choices are equally good." (Emphasis in original.) 

It is an all-hands-on-deck rebellion against Almighty God in an attempt to replace His laws with a man-centered, morally relativistic ideology that demands that all rivals kneel or perish. 

Hostility toward faith

Hitchens and Kendal are not "the-sky-is-falling" alarmists. Christians are under fire in the U.S., although legal battles are still being fought and all is not lost.

For example, in 2010 Jennifer Keeton, a Christian enrolled in a graduate counseling program at Augusta State University in Georgia, objected to counseling gay and lesbian clients in a manner that affirmed the homosexual lifestyle. 

School officials threatened her with expulsion if she didn't change her views. In order to remain in the graduate program, Keeton was told she could go on probation and embark on a "remediation" plan that included attending gay pride events and sensitivity training.  

When she refused, Keeton was expelled. She sued ASU, but this summer a federal district judge ruled in favor of the university.

A similar case involving Eastern Michigan University also wound up in court. Julea Ward, a graduate student in that school's counseling program, encountered problems when she was assigned a potential client who wanted help regarding a same sex relationship.  

Ward, a Christian, said her religious convictions would not allow her to affirm such relationships, but that she was willing to refer the client to a counselor who could.

The client complained, and EMU officials gave Ward an ultimatum: She could remain in the graduate program only if she changed her religious beliefs.  

Ward sued, and initially a federal district judge ruled in favor of EMU. However, in January the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and ordered a trial to commence. 

The appellate court stated, "A reasonable jury could conclude that Ward‚' professors ejected her from the counseling program because of hostility toward her speech and faith."  

Government interests

Even those Christians who own their own businesses are finding themselves squeezed by an oppressive ideology that permits no dissent.

Continued

Trust, Newspapers, News and Media

 Low trust— Government and Media

News Clips from American Family Association (Christian media)

Recent surveys from two major polling agencies indicate that Americans have a growing distrust in basic institutions such as government and media.  

A slim majority (51%) now view the U.S. government as a threat to individual liberties rather than a protector of those rights, according to a Rasmussen poll released in June. Only 34% saw the government as a protector of rights, while 15% were undecided. (See story, "Beware the camel's nose.")  

Another Rasmussen poll released last fall revealed that 20% of likely U.S. voters thought the government was operating with the consent of the governed, while 63% believed it was not. 

That poll found that the majority of likely voters felt the federal government had "lost touch with the people it represents," according to Rasmussen.   

According to Gallup's most recent annual Confidence in Institutions survey, 21% of Americans have much confidence in television news. Only 25% have confidence in news reporting of newspapers. The confidence in television is down seven points from last year and has continued in a steady decline of viewers who believe what the mainstream news is saying.

Some things aren't as large as they seem

Perhaps all those homosexual characters on television are paying off for the gay community. 

Less than 2% of the U.S. population self-identifies as gay or lesbian, according to the most reliable estimates. But a recent Gallup poll found that Americans significantly overestimate that figure. 

Gallup found that more than a third of adults believe that more than 25% of Americans are homosexual, with another 17% saying they think the percentage of homosexuals is in the 20-25% range.

                        www.gallup.com, 5/27/12

Study: Fear of hell lowers crime

 

There is a relationship between a society's religious beliefs regarding heaven and hell and how much crime exists, or so says a psychologist from University of Oregon.  

Professor Azim F. Shariff said that his research indicated that a strong cultural belief in a God who punishes sin results in lower crime rates, while stressing a forgiving God tends to increase crime.

"It seems like there is a case to be made for the causal direction that religious punishment does actually lower unethical behavior, whereas forgiveness does seem to license people," Shariff told a local ABC news affiliate.

The study examined attitudes and actions of people in 67 countries over a 26-year period.

                        www.christianpost.com, 6/20/12

 [Global Warming Hoax]

Global what?

Climate change 'deniers' not so dumb after all

The current environmental paradigm assumes that those who don't believe in man-made climate change are less scientifically savvy, while those who do are scientifically smarter.

According to one study, however, those assumptions just aren't true. 

"Seeming public apathy over climate change is often attributed to a deficit in comprehension. The public knows too little science, it is claimed, to understand the evidence or avoid being misled," said a report published in May in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study added: "We conducted a study to test this account and found no support for it."

Instead, the researchers found just the opposite: Those with the highest degrees of scientific understanding were less concerned about climate change, while those who were the most concerned scored slightly lower on tests of scientific knowledge.

"As respondents' science literacy scores increased, their concern with climate change decreased," the paper said. 

Rather than scientific literacy, the researchers said it was ideology that was driving the cultural battle over man-made climate change. Those who believed in individual interests were less concerned about climate change and its causes, while those who believed in pushing for social equality were more concerned.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

                        www.nature.com, 5/27/12; www.foxnews.com, 5/28/12

Islamist promises Israel's destruction …

Islam still promotes terrorism

A radical Muslim preacher predicted that the new president of Egypt would construct a new Muslim caliphate - a single Islamic dominion - over the Arab world with its capital in Jerusalem.

  

In a May speech at a soccer stadium in Cairo, Muslim cleric Safwat Higazi told thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, "The capital of the caliphate - the capital of the United States of the Arabs - will be Jerusalem, God willing."

  

He then led the crowd in chanting, "Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem," according to the Jerusalem Post.

  

Higazi claimed this would be accomplished by then-candidate Mohamed Mursi, who eventually won the Egyptian presidency in a controversial election victory. Mursi agreed with Higazi's sentiments regarding Israel.  

"Yes, Jerusalem is our goal," Mursi told the crowd. "We shall pray in Jerusalem, or die as martyrs on its threshold." 

Mursi has also said that Egypt-s Coptic Christian population must "convert [to Islam], pay tribute or leave" the country. The statement was made privately to a journalist but was publicized by the Egyptian news website El Bashayer.   

… and then the Vatican

The Middle East Media Research Institute released a video and translation of an interview with a prominent Muslim professor in which he predicted the Islamic re-conquest of Andalusia (Spain) and the subjugation ofz the Vatican, home to the Catholic Church. 

"The conquest of Andalusia is an old dream, something Muslims proudly hope for and will continue to hope for in the future," Dr. Subhi Al-Yaziji said in a May 25 interview on Al-Aqsa TV. He added: "We place our hopes in Allah and trust that the day will come when our triumph will not be restricted to Palestine. Our hopes go beyond that - to raise the banner of the caliphate over the Vatican, the 'Rome' of today, in accordance with the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: 'Constantinople shall be conquered, and then Rome.'"  

According to MEMRI, Al-Yaziji is dean of Koranic studies at Islamic University of Gaza and former department head at the Ministry of Religious Endowments for Hamas. 

                        www.christianpost.com, 5/31/12;  www.jpost.com, 5/8/12; www.memri.org, 6/8/12;  www.theblaze.com, 6/12/12

 

President Obama, Terrorism, and Libya

Does Obama Foreign Policy Restrain or Encourage Terrorism?

Vote in Related Poll
From American Family Association

Muslim rioters murder U.S. ambassador, three others

Much like the Syrian debacle, much like the Iranian debacle, much like the Iraqi debacle -- [this is] the same sort of failed policy," he tells OneNewsNow. "They do not understand that part of the world, they don't listen to people who do -- and as a result we shed a lot of innocent blood."

Bob Maginnis, Family Research Council

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad, Libyan officials said Wednesday.

They said Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob guns and rocket propelled grenades.
The three Libyan officials who confirmed the deaths were deputy interior minister for eastern Libya Wanis al-Sharaf; Benghazi security chief Abdel-Basit Haroun; and Benghazi city council and security official Ahmed Bousinia.

The State Department said Tuesday that one American was killed in the attack. It has not confirmed the other deaths.

The attack on the Benghazi consulate took place as hundreds of protesters in neighboring Egypt scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down and replaced the American flag with a black Islamic banner.

The attacks in Benghazi and Cairo were the first such assaults on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of their longtime authoritarian leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, in uprisings last year.

The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an Israeli filmmaker living in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube.
 
Stevens, 52, was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.

One foreign policy debacle after another

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow
National defense analyst and Pentagon advisor Bob Maginnis says the initial reaction of the U.S. consulate in Cairo to condemn an anti-Islam movie is another sign of the appeasement attitude of the president when it comes to Islam. The perpetrators of Tuesday's attacks in Egypt and Libya cited that reaction as a reason for their actions.

Maginnis, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who is now senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council, says this is another in a long line of Obama foreign policy debacles.

"Much like the Syrian debacle, much like the Iranian debacle, much like the Iraqi debacle -- [this is] the same sort of failed policy," he tells OneNewsNow. "They do not understand that part of the world, they don't listen to people who do -- and as a result we shed a lot of innocent blood."

Continue and vote in related poll